Seventy-three to eighty percent of people who sell things don’t necessarily ask for the sale or they don’t have good training around how to overcome objections.
I want to give you some rebuttals today and how to respond to them.
- Here are 12 ways to overcome an objection:
Make sure that you actually ask for the sale. If you can give somebody a guarantee or a window of opportunity. One of the things you might want to say is, “Here’s the good news, Mrs. Jones, you don’t have to make your final decision today. That’s right, we offer something called the money back guarantee. Now a lot of places don’t offer that. But we give you a chance to try it out. We give you a chance to use the product use the service and for any reason or a conditional Money Back Guarantee says you have to use it so many times. And then you get your money back. What could be better than that?” and then wait for the response. - “When have you ever been this close?” We say this a lot in the health and fitness business. “Mrs. Jones, you’ve probably driven by this place many times. For three to six months, you’ve probably thought about getting into better shape, about working out, or about improving your health. And now you’ve actually come in and you’ve actually gotten a free workout or a complimentary workout, a one day membership or one day pass. You’ve already made the toughest decision and that’s behind you. When have you ever been this close? Please don’t put this off another day.”
- A lot of times people give you the “I’m going to think it over” objection and we call this response “Peeling the Onion.” Really what this means is for you to make a list of different items and say, “Is it this? Is it this? Is it this? Is it this?” Then you can peel away all the excuses until you get down to the final objection. An example would be like this: “Mrs. Jones, let me ask you a question. Is it the coach? Is it the hours of operation? Is it the treadmills just simply don’t go fast enough? Is it because we don’t have heavy enough weights on the workout floor? Is it something I said? Was it the music that you didn’t like? Is it that you just don’t like the color orange? Is that what’s holding you back today?” And then finally, if it’s none of those, then ask them for help understanding. What is it exactly that they need to think about? That’s when they’ll open up and they’ll tell you what the real objection is because we all know that the “Think it over” is just a smokescreen.
- The “Payment Close” is simply when it is time to say, “How would you like to take care of this today Mrs. Jones? with a Visa, MasterCard or an American Express?” You give them those alternate choices of a payment close.
- The “Instant Reversal” is when somebody says, “Well, the price is too high.” You use an instant reversal, which is, “That’s exactly why you should do it today.” Typically, the prospect will do a double take and they say, “What did you mean by that?” Your answer is: “The reason you need to do it today Mrs. Jones is because we are offering…(whatever discount, free time, or complimentary gift) you have for that day, week, or month only. You see, we all know that inflation is happening and we all know that the prices are going up. If you’re really concerned about the price, that’s exactly why you should do it today, to save money and to save some time.
- The “Magic Pill” close technique. Everybody is looking for the magic pill. This is popular in the fitness business. “You know the magic pill, my goodness, you sign up for Orangetheory fitness and all of a sudden, you get the magic pill with a membership card. What’s the magic pill? You go home tonight, you take the pill, you drink a glass of water, you go to bed, and you wake up tomorrow morning, and voila, the weight is gone. You look fabulous. You look fantastic. You have never looked better in your life. You see Mrs. Jones, everybody is looking for the magic pill. And you know, there is no such thing. As a magic pill. It took you time, months, even years to put the weight on, it’s going to take you some time to get it off. Exercise and a healthy lifestyle is not a one time thing. But it’s a lifetime thing. That’s the magic kill/magic pill close.
- The “Good versus Cheap” closing technique. Many times people bring up money and they say, “It’s a little bit expensive.” or “You guys are expensive.” And you can simply shake your head and say, “Yes, you know, we’re not cheap, Mrs. Jones. And as you well know, good things are seldom cheap. And cheap things are seldom good. There’s a lot of places that can beat us on price. But nobody, and I mean nobody, can beat us on quality, service, cleanliness and friendliness of our staff.
- This is the “3-Question” close. I love this one. I teach this all the time. This is in case you get stuck. And you kind of don’t know what to say. But you can come up with what we call the 3-Question close. These are three questions that demand a “Yes” answer. This is the way we say it in the fitness business. First one, “Well, let me ask you a question. Mrs. Jones. Are you interested in your health?” And she’ll say, “Yes.” Next you ask, “Well, are you interested in taking better care of your health?” And she’ll say, “Yes.” And finally ask, “If you were ever going to start to take better care of your health, when do you think would be the best time to get started?” Simply be quiet and watch the response. Start shaking your head yes, up and down in a yes fashion. And see if that doesn’t work for you.
- The “Maybe You Should Wait” close. This close is when somebody keeps putting it off and putting it off and they can’t seem to make a decision. You simply begin to tidy up all your materials, your presentation materials, the papers on the desk, whatever it is that you have laying out there, maybe it’s the price sheet, maybe it’s the money back guarantee, maybe it’s a referral sheet, whatever it is that you’ve got, you start tying all that up. And you simply say, “You know, maybe you’re right, maybe you should wait, I can think of a lot of times in my own life if I had waited, I would have been much better off you see, I remember my very first car, it was a 1971 Camaro and I paid $800 for it. And if I just waited another year, two years, I could have saved up enough money to buy a much nicer car. You see, my very first house wasn’t a house, it was a townhome. And if I had just waited two or three more years, I could have saved up enough money to buy a single family home, a much nicer home. And you know, I have a daughter, she’s the love of my life, and if I just waited a few more years to have children, you see, I could have saved up enough money to give her everything in life that she ever wanted. You see the problem with waiting? Until everything is exactly right. You never really treat yourself to the things in life that you truly deserve. Let’s not put this off another moment. Let’s go ahead and get you started today.”
- The “You Never Know” close. “Well, I can tell you this for sure. Mrs. Jones, I can tell you one thing is that you’ll never know if you never get started. Let’s go ahead and simply get you started today.
- The “Price is Too High” objection. We hear that a lot. The prospect says, “Well, my goodness, I mean, the price is just simply too high. I didn’t expect that.” Typically we ask the question, “Compared to what?”. In the group training, they’ll say, “Well, the membership down the road is, you know, $49 or $29.” And then we compare that to personal training at an average of 50 to $100 per session. And we change the perspective, “If you were paying $50 a session and you worked out 10 times a month, that would be $500. But Orangetheory fitness is simply 12 or $14 per session.” By changing the perspective when people say the price is too high, you simply respond with compared to what?
- Lastly, let’s look at the “Pile On” close. What happens with people most of the time is they are making a decision in their head. They have imaginary scales. On one side they’re trying to be conservative and they are trying not to make a bad decision. And on the other side are all the benefits of everything you’ve just presented. When someone’s close to making a decision, what you want to do is to pile on. What is the pile on technique? The pile on is revealing all the benefits that your product or service offers. In our business, things to pile on would be an in-body scan. “Besides that, Mr. Jones with your membership, you get 55 classes a week, you get a different class, a different program, a different template, every single workout, you get different music every single workout. As a matter of fact, we’re going to give you the heart rate monitor, you can choose between the chest strap or the armband strap for the heart rate monitor. We’re going to give you an in-body scan, we’re going to give you complimentary five VIP friends and family workouts that come in and work out with you.” And keep adding on, adding on, adding on and then ask, “Is there any reason why you shouldn’t make a decision today?” And they say yes.
What I’m saying is you have to be prepared. You can’t go out and close a sale with one tool in your toolbox. It takes more than just a hammer to build something. You have to have multiple tools in your toolbox.
And the way you do this is by having multiple close techniques committed to memory.
You rehearse, you repeat, you memorize and then you’re able to respond and react when a customer or a prospect brings up an objection.
My name is Terry, I’m your friend. Have a productive day today!